Raw fish and sunshine

I met with the director of the institute today. She described two studies on which I could work. The first would involve considerable travel but the topic isn't really very interesting to me. The second is in Lima, or rather Canto Grande, a slum just outside of Lima. It investigates the use of fortified milk to prevent anemia in infants. The topic is more interesting and the study may prove to be a bit controversial (it directly contradicts the "breast is best" folks). The controversy doesn't bother me, in fact I think it may be a positive. On Monday or sometime early next week I should be meeting with Claudio who is much more involved with infectious diseases. Other good news to report: the sun came out today. It had been cloudy since I got here. When it is cloudy in Lima everything is gray, so it was nice to see a blue sky today. There is a small park where people take dogs to do their business (the dogs, not the people) just outside the apartment so I went there and read some which was nice. Oh, I almost forgot. I ate ceviche today. Ceviche is the national dish of Peru and consists of raw fish, onions, aji (spicy small red peppers), corn and lime juice. I felt a bit weird eating raw fish that was not wrapped in seaweed and rice but I really enjoyed it. It has an incredible amount of flavor, I think I'll even eat it again. For those of you coming to visit if you don't want raw fish but want ceviche you can get the vegetarian and/or mango versions. Good food and a bit of sweet sunshine, I'm starting to feel spoiled by this city.